Gross firework sales in the United States are estimated at approximately $350 million dollars each year. This figure represents several billion individual firework items and several thousand firework displays. Every year, people are injured while setting off fireworks, particularly around the 4th of July holiday. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that there have been approximately 7,350 fireworks-related injuries per year and usually one or two deaths associated with fireworks.
One main reason for such injuries is the fact that fireworks are used in the evening when it is dark outside. It is often difficult for users to locate the fuse of the firework device. Tile inability to properly locate the fuse may also cause the user to light the fuse improperly, such as too close to the firework device. As a result, the user may not have sufficient time to walk away from the shooting firework device and may cause him or her serious bodily injury. As a result, there continues to be a long-felt need for a firework which avoids these pitfalls and which is thus safer to use.
Glow in the dark devices are not new. U.S. Pat. No. 4,724,327 discloses a welt cord which is either saturated in luminescent paint or embedded with a luminescent material. Depending on the type of luminescent material used, the cord glows either after having been excited by a light source or while being excited by light of a suitable wavelength. U.S. Pat. No. 2,939,271 discloses a phosphorescent rope comprising a plurality of strands of fibers and a plurality of phosphorescent filaments wound through and along the strands of fiber. Each of the filaments is made up of a pair of thin, narrow strips of plastic bonded together and a layer of phosphorescent material sandwiched between the plastic strips. U.S. Pat. No. 2,382,355 discloses a rope that is either coated with a luminous material or that has luminous material incorporated in the material from which the rope is made. U.S. Pat. No. 2,376,813 discloses a floatable, water repellant/resistant rope that may be coated with a luminescent material to increase its ability to be seen in the dark.
None of these patents, however, disclose, teach or suggest a glow in the dark fuse or a firework device having a glow in the dark fuse. Not only are there structural differences between the fuse of the present invention and the above-mentioned cords and ropes, but the luminous material must be applied in a unique and different manner so as not to degrade or impede the performance of the fuse and the firework device. Moreover, existing firework devices do not currently have any mechanisms to aid users to accurately locate the fuse in the dark. In light of the unsafe nature of these existing firework devices, there is a need for a firework device having a fuse which can be easily detected in the dark.